LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 






UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




TEMPERANCE LECTURE, 



— BY- 



JOSEPH BARD, 




/I ^ 






CHICAGO, 

1878. 




y> 







"Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1878 by Joseph Bard in 
the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washin-i^ton. 



Temperance Lectun 



The laws of life require certain demands on the pro- 
ductions of nature, including certain articles suitable to 
replenish the loss of vitality of every organ. If we 
take what injures, then we lose our vitality by degrees" 
and life is robbed of not only its pleasures but years. 
Ask the drunkard whether his system requires ardent 
spirits: he v/ill almost invariably answer yes. Ask him 
the reason: and he will say because it gives him strength 
to work and endure hardships. The drunkard has his 
theory, which is false. His nature enters its protest and 
proclaims his weakness, and that his argument is false ; 
while temperance people use water, vdiich agrees with 
their systems. The brain is too weak to sustain its 
shocks. It heats the blood more than nature designed 
it should be, therefore making a fool of reason and a pest- 
house of the body, making drinking men not eligible to 
rule. It outrages nature's laws, and nature becomes by 
degrees too weak to sustain its violence. Law condemns 
the traffic when it condemns its victims to suffer death 
or imprisonment. Our rulers give licenses and condemn 
the fruit issuing from them. They place sin before the 
human race by law, and^condemn their own law and the 



4 TEMPEPvAKCE LECTURE. 

much crime? What is it that makes nature decline? 
Ardent spirits — it destroys alL It takes away men's na- 
tures — it makes them fall. What destroys the original 
nature destroys the soul and brings their lives prema- 
turely to an end. Is it good? 

We have more than one billion acres of uncultivated 
land which will be in the course of time populated. — 
What kind of principles are the best to preserve the en- 
ergy and industry of this population? Intemperance 
or sobriety? What spirit is in antagonism with the in- 
dustry, honesty, progression and civilization of the na- 
tion? Is sobriet}^ an enemy to the advancement of the 
human race? Is intemperance a friend? It has enter- 
ed the new States. Has it benefitted them? Every kind 
of corruption gathers around its flames, creating crime 
and requiring the erection of Court Houses, Jails, Poor 
Houses, Lunatic Asylums, Reform Schools, Houses of 
Correction, Bridewells, Penitentiaries, and Inebriate 
Asylums and Gibbets. And what are inebriate asylums 
built for? Go ask their inmates whether ardent spirits 
are good. And does not the poor man reduce his own 
wages wdien he expends his money for either tobacco or 
ardent spirits? If we have three thousand saloon keep- 
ers, and if the}^ put one dollar a week avf ay, that being 
a low estimate wdien we include the distillers and brew- 
ers and tobacconists, how much is taken out of circula- 
tion? For years the money goes and no equivalent. 

Right principles make right people. We possess great 
resources. Liberty has room for sobriety, its friend, but 
none for its foe, intemperance, for it is the offspring of 
evil. By its fruit ye shall judge it. It is not the spirit 
that belongs to it. Sobriety is the true spirit of liberty. 
They both sustain a nation's integrity. They never in- 



TSMPEEAI-^CE LECTUEE. 5 

jure, but propagate itvS blessings. But the majority rule. 
But do sucli ivieii care for the true welfare of the peo- 
ple ? lYhose prospects do they destroy ? They give to 
them what injures and actually destroys both them and 
their families, defrauding them out of their earthly hap- 
piness and cheating God out of their souls. Rum af- 
fects men's mental and physical strength, deprives them 
of their rights, and they think that by drinking to ex- 
cess that it will free them from their sufferings. They 
feel the present, but seldom think of the future. The 
blood-stained list of the fallen from the effects of the 
traffic can be both heard and seen by some one every 
day. Men with all their wisdom still are weak and fool- 
ish, for it is the fool part in the human race that follows 
habit, chews, smokes, snuffs, and drinks ardent spirits, 
knowing the effects of both tobacco and ardent spirits. 
They take it and fall, and like an infant in weakness they 
are lulled to sleep and death in its arms — strong in wis- 
dom but weak when appetite holds out the poisoned cup. 
The devil rules them with his evil pleasures. How many 
of the damned are already vfailing in hell sent there by 
laws created by what some call wise men in earthly wis- 
dom, but who care not for the interest of the human race 
so long as they are elected to office and get the salary, 
while true merit begs for bread. 

The tender heart of sympathy revolts at the scenes 
and miseries created by ardent spirits. The fountain is 
corrupted by ardent spirits — something that never crea- 
ted one good thought nor ever drops one tear of regret. 
Its influence both socially and physically is destructive, 
and turns the heart of humanity into a den of demons. 
It is the agent of satan, its crirn^ are legion. It is the 
consumer of the strength, healfti and wealth of the liu- 



r> 



TEMPERAJ^CE LECTURE. 



man race, retarding civilization and destroying the affec- 
tions which bind nations together as brothers. Drunk- 
enness is a crime against God and the human race. So- 
briety makes true civilization. Intemperance destroys its 
true spirit. It is to our interest to make this country a 
temperance nation instead of a land of drunkards. How 
few see its real evils. Its voice should be feared more 
than the voice of the tobacco-smoking Indian. The use 
of either gives no equivalent. For the industry taken, 
the health and money, it inJlicts wounds which are sel- 
dom ever healed, while the majority of drunkards are 
useless objects in this industrious land, if they possess 
no desire to reform. Time cannot change them. We 
cannot find any improvement while intemperance holds 
possession. Truth, beauty and sense are gone. 

A license law requires Court Houses, Jails, Lunatic 
Asylums, Houses of Correction, Eeform Schools, Bride- 
wells, Inebriate Asylums, Penetentiaries. Its fruit is 
wretched humanity for the nation to support. They are 
marching on to eternity laden down Avith suffering. The 
depraved nature prefers a saloon to a church or school- 
house, because it creates desires in opposition to learn- 
ing; they love ignorance instead of knowledge. Truth 
is fighting its battles against lies, which cannot hide be- 
cause we see their fruits. It is a spirit creating darkness 
where light should be, creating depravity v*^here morality 
ought to be; laying a heavy burden upon the human race 
grievous^to be borne, clinging to its selfish ambition and 
avaricious interests. It is the stumbling block to nations. 
Whoput them there? Good men? No. Who super- 
intends it? The devil. Who are his agents? Good 
men? No. We can form no conception of the magni- 
tude of its work. We can hardly conceive that men ed- 



TEMPERANCE LECTURE. i 

ucated and civilized can forfeit tlieir liiimanity and good 
sense in helping to reduce our civilization and humani- 
ty in sustaining it. Those dealing in ardent v^pirits and 
tobacco would like to suppress freedom of speech on the 
subject, while they at the same time like to have the 
fullest license in making paupers and criminals. We 
possess a land of churches and school houses, depriving 
ignorance of an excuse, for all can improve if they have 
the desire. But with all our blessings and advantages, 
that evil casts a cloud over our peace. Angels looking 
down upon this world teeming with so many blessings, 
view the foul cancer of corruption eating deep into the 
vitals of Liberty, and behold the povert}^ wide-spread, and 
suffering ones, standing around her asking for vengeance 
on the defiant murderer, who tramples the rights of na- 
tions under his feet, mocks at sympathy weeping over 
the slain fathers, mothers, sons and daughters of Liber- 

This demon enemy has weapons which law furnish- 
es. It makes discord where once was peace. Man de- 
stroys his fellow man by law. Men decrease their own 
wages by the use of tobacco and ardent spirits, those in 
the traffic taking millions out of circulation — sending 
much of it away to other countries. It is hard to con- 
quer appetite when it chains the will and robs it of its 
strength. Let the drunkard trace its work back through 
the ages, and tell what it has accomplished to redeem 
the human race or to benefit them, A warning voice 
from the tomb cries. Stop : why do you still pursue the 
way thousands have gone, and died prematurely? Their 
tongues are silent; they cannot tell you where they went, 
except by example left behind them. What is eternity? 
Can you form any conception of what is the end of all 



8 TEMPEEAJ^CE LECTURE. 

sucli eternal misery ? It is something too large for us 
to grasp. Diyes gave us an insight of its torments. 
What is the end of the drunkard? Let not your end 
be like his — a heaven above and a hell beneath. Peo- 
ple, many of them calling themselves Christians, 
have passed over God's denunciations of coming wrath; 
they have overlooked the commendation of God to the 
Rechabites for their temperance principles; they take 
poison themselves, and hand it to their brothers to find 
the same sin which blots out their existence before its 
allotted time. Spring, summer, autumn and winter pass 
away, bringing a longing not expressed, but often seen 
in the face. What changes that? — is it good drink 
chang^es the countenance? what changes that? Is that 
good which degrades you ? Is that good which makes 
men murder? Is that good which consigns men to dun- 
geons? Is that good which consigns them to hard labor? 
Is that good which consigns them ta gibbets ? Is it good ? 
— is there anything good in it? Take it for a friend^ 
and it proves a serpent. 

Take not that cup of sin, 

A cup that the devil's in. 

A world of sin, a world of woe. 

Choose the good and let sin go. 

It gives no peace, it gives no joy, 

But is ever w^akeful to destroy. 



